Yes! Finally some snow. We could barely see the house across the street. In the beginning it was mainly freezing rain. It froze on contact, but looked like it was raining. After getting about 2" of that, we started getting the fluffy stuff. It was so pretty. There is something about snow that I just love. I like the quiet and crunchy sound you hear when you go outside and nothing is moving around. There is such a silence with the exception of your booted feet on the ground.

Of course like many, many others, we lost our power. Temperatures didn't hestitate to drop in the house. Then it dawned on me that we have 4 tropical birds that need 70 degrees. Mike wanted us to go to his moms. He and his brother were going to set up a generator there because she had also lost her electric. But I just couldn't picture 2 extremely active kids staying there with no light, no toys, no tv, no nothing. So I started calling at 7:30 am trying to locate a hotel. We wound up going to a weekly efficiency hotel. All they had was a full size bed in a single room. Fine! We'll take it. I told them I needed a non-smoking room, but when we stepped off the elevator, the smoke cloud hit me in the face. The room was ok though, thank goodness. But it sure didn't make me anxious to go into the hall way.

So we got all set up. The kids were fine, it was me that felt cramped. Mike stayed at his Mom's. He had to be at work at 6am the next morning. He wanted to stay at her house to make sure that her generator was going to work properly. They had to do something to her furnace to get it to hook into the generator. As of today, she is still without power.

And of course no sooner than we got all set up, that evening our power was back on. But we spent the night anyway just in case. So if anyone is still out of power and needs a place to stay, let me know. I have a room available. We had to pay for the week regardless of how many days we stayed. I still have the keys and we have the room until Wednesday 11am.

The kids were so excited to go out. Since there was a deep layer of ice under the snow they realized they were able to run and then do a belly slide like a big seal. They were having a ball.

I thought the ice was so pretty. Especially on the red berries. So crystal clear. The kids and I had to run out to Ford to give Mike his keys. So I took some pictures there because I was so close to the bushes and trees there near where I parked.

These berries are around our back deck. The blue birds love 'em, but the mockingbirds seem to enjoy chasing off any bird. So we see a lot of bird fights out there.


When we got home from running our errands, the moon was so pretty in such a clear blue sky. I just had to take a picture.

One of our errands consisted of taking Smokey and Maggie to the vet for their annual checkups and shots. They weren't thrilled at all, but did very well. They're ear infections have gone away too.

Here Dr. Watson is checking Smokey's heart.

Now it's Maggies turn.

Another errand was stopping at the quilt shop in Jtown to get another piece of fabric I needed more of. Well, of course with it being a quilt shop, I got very sidetracked. Simon was being great and watching cartoons and Sydnee had gone back to the classroom and found the owner. The owner had brought her dog in due to lack of power at home. Well with the dog being there Sydnee was in heaven. She loves dogs. Later the owner's husband came in. Later I heard someone saying "Sydnee's Mom?? Looking for Sydnee's Mom". He was going to take Sydnee out with him to walk the dog outside. He was so funny. She was in heaven.

Best part of today????? The kids were wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, all of these errands and wonderful behavior. I had them take their token jars. I took my jar with tokens and the cards we made with my expectations and ways to earn extras. They are loving this system. Before we went into the first location, we went through the cards to remind them of what is expected. They repeated them back to me. Then when we left a location, they would say "Mom, aren't you glad we behaved while we were in there"? Simon would jump to the door to hold it open for Sydnee and I.

In the end they earn more tokens and we had a great day with no arguing or disobeying. YES!!!